Few would deny the advantages offered by devices which are powered by batteries versus those which need to be physically connected to a power supply or an electrical outlet. The communications industry has moved rapidly to introduce both cordless and wireless devices designed to run primarily on batteries. As anyone who has used a battery powered device knows, though, batteries run down and need to be replaced or recharged. One type of rechargeable device is a cordless telephone. There exists cordless telephones which are made up of a base and a handset. Typically, the handset is powered by a battery of some sort. When the battery runs down most telephones allow the handset's battery to be recharged by placing it into the base. This is referred to as placing the handset into the cradle of the base (hereafter an “in cradle” state). Once the battery in the handset has been recharged the handset can be taken out of the base and used. This is referred to as taking the handset out of the cradle (hereafter “out of cradle” state). During the time the handset is in the in-cradle state and its' battery is recharging the handset cannot be used for incoming or outgoing telephone calls. In addition, most telephones are not designed to allow the handset to communicate with the base in order to exchange registration information nor do they allow secondary features, such as caller-identification, to function until the battery is sufficiently recharged.
It is desirable to have a rechargeable device, such as a cordless telephone handset, which could operate while its' battery is recharging from a dead battery state.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide for methods and devices for controlling the connection of a power supply or supplies to circuitry of a rechargeable device, such as a cordless telephone handset, to allow the circuitry to operate while a battery is recharging.
Other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.